DISCLAIMER: Teen Titans is the sole property of DC Comics/Warner Brothers, and though this is plagiarism, it is done respectfully and with no intent to profit from it.
A/N: Again, I credit Post for providing me with some of the dates, and I thank all the other authors who's writings left impressions on me which later came together to become this fic.
CHAPTER 1: GHOSTS OF THE PAST
"Hush-a-bye baby, on the tree top."
Alternating between soft singing and near-silent humming, Raven gently sent the small bundle in her arms of to sleep.
"When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall..."
Raven gently lowered the sleeping infant towards his cot, voice fading to an almost inaudible whisper as she laid him in his blankets.
"...and down will come baby, cradle and all."
Tucking the sheets around the tiny infant, she paused and kissed him gently on his brow.
"Sleep well Greg."
Smiling contentedly, both left. Raven to be with her partner, and Greg to that place where dreams are real, and where we all yearn to be.
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Beastboy waved silently to Raven as she came back down the stairs into the dimmed room, rising to embrace her. The past two years had brought a lot of changes, him finally overtaking her in height, but only by an inch.
'How did we get here?' both thought, trying to imagine the two gawky teenagers they were when they first met. Okay, still were. But they had come such a long way in those few years.
Beastboy had changed very little actually. Okay, he wasn't forever goofing off, and he now knew when jokes were and weren't needed in a situation, but he still retained his wide-eyed, exuberant outlook on life.
Raven had changed dramatically though. Though the evil within her would never be truly destroyed, it now effectively was, forever locked away and the key thrown down the proverbial well, giving her the freedom to be herself. She still shuddered when she remembered the last battle against Trigon, only a scant six months ago, knowing full well that she could not have done it without the support and love of her friends, and the knowledge of the tiny life that she had been carrying inside her at the time...
Both were content to just stand there, remembering and holding one another. Eventually they broke apart, but still remained close to each other, unsure of what to do now.
"So...you wanna watch a movie?"
Raven thought, shrugged.
"Sure."
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She landed without a sound outside the looming doors to the tower and paused, recovering from the brief elation of true flight, instead of riding on a boulder. The realisation of her situation quickly brought her back down to Earth however.
'How do I do this? If I can barely see myself, how can they be expected to.'
Hesitant to attempt what she would certainly be able to do given and walk through the door, she instead summoned her strength and found she could physically touch the keypad beside the door.
"T-5-18-18-A."
To her total surprise the sliding doors whooshed open at the entry of the old entry code.
'They haven't deleted my access code...why?"
Slowly she crossed the threshold and entered the place she still though of as home.
'...unless they still expect me to come back.'
Following a programmed sub-routine built into the doors a flat electronic voice echoed around the entrance hall from wall-mounted speakers.
"Welcome home, Terra."
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While Beastboy began to ferret around in the large racks of DVDs, Raven made herself comfortable on the only available couch in the room, the other two being occupied by a snoring Cyborg on one, and a sleeping Human/Tamaranian couple on the other, both snuggled against each other as they slept.
Not wanting to disturb them, Raven chattered telepathically with Beastboy.
'Anything there we haven't seen twenty times already?'
He 'thought' back and Raven heard his response as if he'd been sitting beside her.
'Unless you count the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition 3-in-1 then no.'
'Too long.'
'Spiderman 3?'
'Too loud.'
'Ghost Ship?'
'Too funny for this late at night.'
'Wicked Scary?'
'Hell no.'
There was a low chuckle from across the room and Beastboy turned back to looking through the DVD cases, working closer towards their own homemade movies. Suddenly his acute sense of hearing picked something up, a faint echo of a voice running through the building.
"-elcome-ome-erra."
Starting slightly, he knocked out a few cases by accident and left them there, listening. Hearing nothing, he picked up the various cases and carried them over to Raven on the couch.
'Which ones do you have?'
'No idea. Let's just pick one of them.'
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Terra slowly glided up the stairs, her feet not touching the ground, but floating just above. Call it ESP or something, but she was certain she knew where the five Titans were, the rec room, though she also felt...someone else.
'How long has it been. A year? A decade? Is there someone else here, someone new? A real sixth Titan.'
That last thought dredged up a load of bitterness, and she forced it down, and instead focused on spiralling further up towards the rec room.
'I don't belong here, and I can't stay. But I have to see them one last time.'
'I have to see him.'
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There were three movie DVDs and two home-mades. Discarding the first three as unsuitable, Beastboy and Raven turned to the last two, the topmost clearly labelled - AUG-10TH 2004 GREG'S HOMECOMING PARTY.
Both winced, remembering the first time they'd brought their son home. Hoping for some peace and quiet with their child after an intensive labour, they'd been torn between elation and fury to find a surprise party sprung on them.
All of the honorary Titans had been there, along with Speedy's Titans East team, the core members of the Justice League and a few other friends. Intent on toasting the new father, Robin, Cyborg and the Flash had ended up getting him drunker than an Irishman on St. Patrick's Day, while Raven had to suffer the joy and embarrassment of having Starfire, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Blackfire and Hawkgirl squabble over who got to play with Greg. In the end Starfire won out, but the other women all remained to entertain Greg with raspberries, funny faces and baby talk until well after his bedtime.
Deciding both would melt from humiliation if they watched this home-movie, they picked up the last DVD and both of their smiles faded slightly while their eyes reflected a mix of painful and happy memories, particularly Beastboy's.
DEC-2ND 2002 TERRA'S BIRTHDAY.
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Silently, Terra reached the rec room and poked her head through the door. Everyone seemed to be asleep in the lounge area, the atmosphere still, quiet, homely. Unable to face them, and desperately trying to distract herself from the tempting scene, Terra floated around the opposite end of the room, looking for something to indicate how much time had passed.
Robin's computer was idling, and numerous pin-ups of wanted criminals still covered the wall space behind it. Unlike the expected pictures of Slade (she shuddered) she had become used to seeing there, most were for some guy named 'Brother Blood.'
Next to the pictures however, was what Terra had been looking for. A calendar, the days neatly crossed off down to the current day.
She blinked in surprise. Two years.
Suddenly, she was broken from her reverie by the sound of lowered voices, and she looked towards them.
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"Do you still think about Terra?"
Beastboy paused, unsure of how to continue.
"No, not that often. It hurts too much."
"Do you still love her?"
It wasn't an accusation of any kind, just a simple question from one lover to another. But it still took some time for him to answer.
"I-I don't know. I'm not sure if I even did. Besides, I have you now."
Raven could see the doubt in Beastboy's eyes, feel the deeply suppressed but powerful emotions in his mind, but also his genuine love for herself. And she was happy in that. Dropping the DVD case beside them, they leaned in for a kiss.
Just as their lips met, a cold draught blew past them, and for the faintest of seconds, Raven swore she could hear a muffled cry of pain, but then they were connected, and the familiar, but forever exhilarating sensation drove anything else out of her mind.
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How could she have been so STUPID! What did she think he would do, stand around waiting for her to come back.
But that didn't stop it from hurting.
Terra just ran. It was something she was used to, and something she hated herself for. If she weren't such a coward, she wouldn't have run away in the first place, and would never have gone to Slade. She would be here. Happy, with friends who loved her, with Beastboy.
Sobbing phantom tears that left no trail, she just ran until she found herself on the top corridor of the building, where the bedrooms where. At the top of the stairs, she briefly looked to the right, towards her own room, the door just visible, but dragged her eyes away, trying to push what might have been out of her eyes.
She felt strangely numb inside, but there was a feeling. Cold, but white-hot with it's pain at the same time. Knawing, consuming.
Betrayal.
Right, who was she to talk about betrayal, and when it came down to it Beastboy deserved better than her. Someone dependable, reliable, loyal. But of all the people it had to be in the world, it had to be Raven, another close friend.
Eyes squeezed shut to stem the tears, Terra didn't realise she had wondered down one of the corridors until a tiny gurgle shook her out of her trance. Looking for its source, she found herself outside another of the burnished steel doors of the tower.
Raven's.
The feeling she had felt of 'a sixth Titan' now blossomed to full realisation within Terra, and she broke down again in the corridor.
'Beastboy's forgotten me, he's with Raven and they--have a baby. Please God no.'
Insult added to injury, Terra found herself unable to hold in the pain anymore and just wept, beating her transparent fists against the floor in impotent frustration.
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'Thump, thump!'
Raven's eyes licked open and she slowly untangled herself from Beastboy's sleeping form, listened with her ear cocked to the ceiling.
'Thump, thump!'
Someone was in the tower.
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Even though she was--well, Terra still expected to have shudders running up her spine as she entered Raven's room, only to be brought up stock still in surprise.
The room had lost the brooding shades of blue and black that had once characterised it and instead was shaded in lighter pastels. Though the many occult artefacts still remained they had been removed from their plinths and lay around the -new- double bed, half packed into boxes lined with Styrofoam. The many shelves that once held books now carried everything required for a young mother. Bottles, milk, talcum powder, diapers, self-help books and nursery rhymes, everything was here.
But most noticeable, was the crib that was set up beside the bed and Terra began to approach it with leaded steps, fearing what she would look in and find.
But she had to know.
Terra reached the crib, looked in and gasped slightly.
The infant was cured up under a dark blue blanket, arms wrapped around what could vaguely be called a teddy bear - bright orange and obviously a home-made gift from Starfire. Unlike his parents, his skin was a bright, healthy flesh peach, but his parentage was evident from the slightly elfin tips to his tiny ears, and the already thick and spiky cowlick of dark-blue hair on his forehead. His breathing was slow and steady, and his tiny mouth grinned as he dreamt. He was the most beautiful child Terra had ever seen in her life, and her heart instantly melted.
"Awwww," she breathed, eyes shining with instant affection.
'If I hadn't run away with Slade I might be with Beastboy. But then this beautiful baby would never had been born.'
Terra jumped slightly as Greg stirred; yawning cutely as he stretched his tiny limbs and opened a pair of mesmeric blue eyes - his mothers, which instantly locked with Terra's.
'He can see me - wow.'
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Eyes narrowed to slits, Raven glided along the corridors of the tower, homing in on the elusive presence she could barely sense.
-----------------------------
Terra smiled and waved at the tiny child, who giggled back.
"Hi there--I'm Terra. Who are you?"
Greg gurgled happily in baby tongue, saliva dribbling down his chin. Terra, not knowing what the hell came over her, adopted a mock brusque attitude.
"Now then young man, it's well past your bed-time. What are you doing awake at this time of night?"
Greg clutched the blankets to his chin and his lip trembled as if he understood her. Any semblance of discipline faded as he and Terra traded funny faces, before he eventually settled down and drifted off to sleep, aided by a softly hummed song from Terra, who just rested her elbows on the railings of the crib and cupped her hands under her chin, just enjoying herself, once again feeling that Titans Tower was home.
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Raven had checked in all of the rooms in this half of the building, putting her ear to the doors and listening. Eventually she came to the room she was adapting for Beastboy to share with her, and listened.
'Yes.'
With a brief hissss the door flicked open, bathing the darkened room with sudden light.
-----------------------------
Terra jumped and fell back from the crib, staring at the figure in the doorway, almost blinded by the corona of light around Raven.
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For the faintest of seconds Raven swore she saw a faintest shadow of a figure beside the crib, but then blinked, and found the room empty. Slowly approaching the crib, she checked and found Greg curled up against his teddy, grinning and snoring lightly.
Raven slowly turned and examined the room.
"I know you're here--show yourself."
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Terra pressed herself against the wall and stared in fixated horror at Raven, who appeared to look straight at her, eyes boring into her soul, before she turned and stared at the other corners of the room. The second Raven looked away, Terra darted for the door, running for the only sanctuary she knew.
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Five minutes later Raven came to the last door in the opposite half of the building. Greg was safe, sound and unharmed, but she could still feel a lingering sense of--someone. So she had checked all of the rooms, including the guest quarters and bathroom. There was only this one left.
Steeping through the open door she pressed the first of two switches by the door, and hundreds of tiny bulbs in the roof glimmered softly, almost like stars in a night sky.
The Titans didn't come here often, except to clean it or perhaps add something to the walls. Everything was silent, still. And yet the empty room didn't feel so--dead, as if something had changed.
Shrugging it off, Raven turned out the lights and shut the door behind her, heading back to the rec room.
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Terra stirred, her ethereal body not even disturbing the pristine sheets on the bed.
'Freshly made,' she noted with some surprise as she began to explore her old haunt - hehe.
In fact, everything in the room was tidy, the shelves dusted, the cactus watered and healthy. But the was more in here than before.
She'd kept the room fairly impersonal when she'd lived here, unable to add anything to a room she did not deserve. But now the red and black walls were covered in photographs. Herself, the titans, a rock mesa at sunset, Monument Valley at high noon. They had all gone to an effort to add something to this room to prepare it, for her to come home?
But there were still doubts in her mind. Until she saw IT. Mounted above her bedspread was a stone plaque, about one foot by two, a message carved in it with strong, firm hands--probably Cyborg's.
TERRA - A TEEN TITAN - A TRUE FRIEND
Terra first stared, then smiled, then wept in joy.
'They want me back -- they want me back, they're waiting for me, and they'll carry on waiting until I do.'
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Raven was curled up again with Beastboy on the couch, entwined in each other. The other titans were all asleep, all save one.
Terra came down the stairs as silently as she could, which was pretty easy. Snuggling up on the same couch as Cyborg, but at the opposite end where she could watch the other couples sleeping. Curling up into herself, she lay and waited. She didn't know if it was possible for her to sleep, but even if she couldn't she would just lie here and enjoy what she had been searching for all her life.
Family.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Did you it? If you liked it, review, if you didn't, flame me, I don't care. Anyway, its cold over here and I could do with the warmth.
Obscure references:
1. Greg is named for Greg Cipes, BB's voice actor.
2. The events of this take place in April 2005. Terra met the Titans on the last day of August in 2002 (sugested by POST), and met Slade on the first of September (POST). She met up with the Titans again around the end of November, and celebrated her birthday on December the second (POST). Her betrayal was in the Jan/Feb period, and the events of Aftershock around March or April.
Greg was conceived during the December period of that year, and Trigon was defeated around a year after Terra died. Greg is born on August eight (my own brother – Rhodri's - birthday) and is eight months old when Terra is revived.
Hope you guys all enjoyed it and the remaining three chapters will be posted soon - IF I GET REVIEWS! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-Ahem (clears throat), cheers and later days.